Jean-Claude Juncker President of the European Commission Brussels cc: , First Vice-President, European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President, European Commission Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport

9 June 2015

Dear President Juncker,

We are writing to express our concern on hearing that the Commission has withdrawn plans to propose an EU-wide strategic target for reducing serious road traffic injuries, set to be announced later this week.

This long-planned initiative, reconfirmed in a Commission press release as recently as 24 March, has already been strongly supported by member states and the . An announcement at the meeting of Transport Ministers in June was expected but we understand on good authority that those plans have now been dropped.

You have said that the European Commission is to be “serious about being big on big things”. Serious road injuries are undoubtedly a very big thing, with at least 200,000 people suffering life-changing consequences resulting from traffic collisions last year alone. The timing of this decision is unfortunate as, according to analysis by ETSC, serious road injuries increased by 3% last year. Furthermore, over recent years, declines in serious road injuries have not matched the reductions in road deaths.

Moreover, there is a strong economic case to act. Estimates undertaken by ETSC show that, if all serious injuries recorded in 2010 could have been prevented, the benefits to society would have been more than 50 billion Euros in that year.

The role of road safety targets in the current progress in reducing road deaths is known to be effective, as is confirmed both by the OECD (“Towards zero: achieving ambitious road safety targets and the safe system approach”, 2008) and scientists (Elvik, “Quantified road safety targets: a useful tool for policy making”, Accident analysis and prevention, 1993).

The EU targets for road deaths were an important driver for the dramatic reductions we have seen in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia: all of which have cut deaths by more than 60% since 2001. The much slower decrease, or even increase in the number of serious road injuries must come to a stop and be turned into a steady decrease. A European road safety target is a simple, cheap, non-controversial and necessary step.

At the EU level a quantitative serious road injury target would provide a stimulus for EU actions in areas where it has exclusive responsibilities for road safety such as vehicle safety standards. An EU target would also inspire competition and knowledge sharing between member states, as it has done for the prevention of deaths.

We would like to have your assurance that the serious injury target will be proposed in the coming weeks. The quality of life of millions of road crash victims is at stake.

Yours sincerely,

Antonio Avenoso Executive Director, European Transport Safety Council

Global and European organisations Members of the European Parliament

Stephen Russell Michael Cramer MEP Secretary General, ANEC Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Tourism Mariann Skar Secretary General, Eurocare Lucy Anderson MEP

Bernhard Ensink Inés Ayala Sender MEP Secretary General, European Cyclists Georges Bach MEP Federation

Michiel Van Ratingen Karima Delli MEP Secretary General, EuroNCAP Ismail Ertug MEP

Christophe Nicodème Dr Dieter-Lebrecht Koch MEP Director General, European Union Road Federation (ERF) Gesine Meissner MEP

Stephen Stacey Olga Sehnalová MEP Managing Director, EuroRAP Claudia Țapardel MEP

Jeannot Mersch Wim van de Camp MEP President, FEVR - European Federation of Road Traffic Victims National organisations and experts

John Chatterton Ross Umberto Guidoni Director Public Affairs, Fédération General Manager, ANIA Foundation for Road Internationale de Motocyclisme Safety, Italy

David Ward Jürgen Dehner, Secretary General, Secretary General, Global NCAP Automobile and Travel Club Germany (ARCD)

Karen Vancluysen Daniel Pflumm Secretary General, Polis Head of Brussels Office, Association of TUVs, Ruth Purdie Germany General Secretary, TISPOL Jean-Yves Salaün Jos Dings Délégué Général, Association Prévention Director, Transport & Environment Routière, France

Jindřich Frič Director of Road Safety and Traffic

Engineering, CDV - Transport Research Centre, Antje Janssen Czech Republic MOVING

Remy Russotto Guro Ranes CEO, CORTE Director of Traffic Safety, Norwegian Public Roads Administration Jesper Sølund Danish Road Safety Council, Denmark Moyagh Murdock, CEO Road Safety Authority, Ireland Marko Sillanpää, Director General of Road Transport, Finnish Vidmantas Pumputis Transport Safety Agency Ministry of Transport, Lithuania

Kalle Parkkari Göran Sydhage Road Safety Director, Finnish Motor Insurers’ CEO, Swedish Abstaining Motorists‘ Centre Association

Eddy Klynen Brigitte Buhmann Director, Flemish Foundation for Traffic Swiss Council for Accident Prevention Knowledge Henk Stipdonk Professor Anders Kullgren Head of Research, SWOV – Institute for Road Folksam Research, Sweden Safety Research, The

Jacqueline Lacroix María Seguí Gómez, Director General, Spanish Head of International Relations and Traffic Traffic Safety Administration (DGT) Medicine, German Road Safety Council (DVR) Professor George Yannis Deirdre Sinnott McFeat Technical University of Athens, Greece Senior Policy Inspector, Work Related Vehicle Safety program, Health and Safety Authority Alicja Fonżychowska Ireland The Association for Improving Safety of Road Traffic, Poland David Davies Executive Director, PACTS, UK Michael Sørensen Research Director, TOI - Institute of Transport Vassiliki Danelli-Mylona Economics, Norway President, Hellenic Road Safety Institute - “Panos Mylonas”, Greece Jan Johansson Director General, Norwegian Road Safety Professor Peter Holló Council Deputy Head of the Road Safety Centre - Institute for Transport Sciences (KTI), Hungary Brian Lawton TRL – Transport Research Laboratory, UK Lucia Pennisi Italian Automobile Club Richard Allsop Emeritus Professor of Transport Safety, Jesús Monclús University College London, UK Prevention and Road Safety Director, MAPFRE Foundation Dr Nicola Christie Director of the Centre for Transport Studies, Professor Marcin Ślęzak University College London, UK General Director, Motor Transport Institute (ITS), Poland Professor Maurizio Tira Professor Pete Thomas Professor of Town and Regional Planning, Transport Safety Research Centre, University University of Brescia, Italy of Loughborough, UK

Oliver Carsten Aldis Lama Professor of Transport Safety, University of Road Safety Expert, Latvia Leeds, UK George Morfakis Road Safety Expert, Cyprus